String for Steam 99s?

I played the 99s with pros pro concept 1.33 at 55lb today. I ended up playing 4 sets (3 hours) with a 4.0 power hitter. Although the strings started getting stuck out of place a bit after 20 mins, the tension held up better than anything I have put in the racket thus far. The racket lost maybe 3lb in the first hour and one more lb over the last 2 hours. Will be trying concept 1.38 from bigt.

After 5hrs+ with Co focus main NXT cross at 52lb I can conclude that this set up is too powerful. The extra spin makes it controllable but I cannot get the volley to stay in. Every touch shot needs to be turned into a slice with heavy spin.

But the feel is very nice. Very easy on the arm even with this stiff frame.

I played the 99s with pros pro concept 1.33 at 55lb today. I ended up playing 4 sets (3 hours) with a 4.0 power hitter. Although the strings started getting stuck out of place a bit after 20 mins, the tension held up better than anything I have put in the racket thus far. The racket lost maybe 3lb in the first hour and one more lb over the last 2 hours. Will be trying concept 1.38 from bigt.

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Got my concept 1.38 in on saturday. Now just waiting for my sticks. Hopefully the strings allow for some good snapback

Concept is very low powered. String it a little lower than you normally would. That should also help with snapback.

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Thanks for the tip. Ill give that a try. I am thinking that I am going to string both of my 99s racquets up, 1 with the Concept and the other with 4g and see if I can really tell a difference. I am not a string snob so I highly doubt I will. Biggest difference I potentially see is the durability and more importantly the tension maintenance.

anyone with tension maintenance issues should positively stick with 4GS. You won't do any better than that. Only if you don't have tension/durability issues should you try other setups.

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That may be true, but at $17 a set and for some having to re-string after 8-12 hours of play... gotta keep searching for a cheaper alternative. But that is part of the fun... the search and the experimenting!

That may be true, but at $17 a set and for some having to re-string after 8-12 hours of play... gotta keep searching for a cheaper alternative. But that is part of the fun... the search and the experimenting!

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My local shop has a 99s demo that was strung 2 weeks ago with 4gs and it's still intact and still very playable to me. I am sure that racquet has seen a lot of use over the last 2 weeks.

Thanks for the tip. Ill give that a try. I am thinking that I am going to string both of my 99s racquets up, 1 with the Concept and the other with 4g and see if I can really tell a difference. I am not a string snob so I highly doubt I will. Biggest difference I potentially see is the durability and more importantly the tension maintenance.

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You're welcome. Unfortunately I'm sure you will feel a difference. 4g has a bit more spin, power, and control. The question is going to be if it is worth 5x more per racket to play the 4g.

If you're 4.5+ and can handle higher sw rac, customize the rac so its over 330g strung, balance pt higher than 33.5cm. Than string it with 1.35mm poly with low friction in the mains, 4G 1.41mm in the cross. String it at 60+ (don't worry its still comfy). Good technique and rac head speed will generate consistent heavy ball.

Stock frame with anything less than 1.30mm just generates spinny ball with loss of control and string bed that goes dead in less than an hour.

To maximize this racquet more string manufacturers need to come out with elastic 1.40mm poly, other than 4G that barely snaps back compared to other strings in Luxilon line up.

If you're 4.5+ and can handle higher sw rac, customize the rac so its over 330g strung, balance pt higher than 33.5cm. Than string it with 1.35mm poly with low friction in the mains, 4G 1.41mm in the cross. String it at 60+ (don't worry its still comfy). Good technique and rac head speed will generate consistent heavy ball.

Stock frame with anything less than 1.30mm just generates spinny ball with loss of control and string bed that goes dead in less than an hour.

To maximize this racquet more string manufacturers need to come out with elastic 1.40mm poly, other than 4G that barely snaps back compared to other strings in Luxilon line up.

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Will definitely try your setup for strings.

I've been playing with 1.25 Xcite and it hits a heavy ball. After 4 hours the strings still feel alive….

My previous stick was a Yonex RDiS mid with the Pacific/MSV my normal setup at 54/48. I would normally break the gut in the sweetspot at 8-12 hours due to fraying then a snap.

Unfortunately with the 99s I have not lasted more than 4.5 hours before snapping a main.

With the P/MSV @ 58/52 I snapped a main less than 2 hours in. I lowered the tension hoping to last a bit longer. I snapped it once on a mishit at the knot after 30 minutes. Next one snapped at the 3rd main in 3 hours.

Switched to the side winder. Snapped Main one after 2.5 hours. Snapped BOTH 6 & 7 4.5 hours in on an off center hit, but not on the frame.

So, unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion I just can't use my beloved gut hybrid with this frame. Well I CAN if I can't find anything else, it'll just get spendy.

I'm going to string up a full bed of Topspin Cyberflash tonight. I ordered 2 sets of 4g to give that a try. I'm a 4.0 with a fairly fast swing speed and ok technique. I've never felt entirely comfortable with a full bed of poly before but I guess I might have to give it a try with this stick.

My previous stick was a Yonex RDiS mid with the Pacific/MSV my normal setup at 54/48. I would normally break the gut in the sweetspot at 8-12 hours due to fraying then a snap.

Unfortunately with the 99s I have not lasted more than 4.5 hours before snapping a main.

With the P/MSV @ 58/52 I snapped a main less than 2 hours in. I lowered the tension hoping to last a bit longer. I snapped it once on a mishit at the knot after 30 minutes. Next one snapped at the 3rd main in 3 hours.

Switched to the side winder. Snapped Main one after 2.5 hours. Snapped BOTH 6 & 7 4.5 hours in on an off center hit, but not on the frame.

So, unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion I just can't use my beloved gut hybrid with this frame. Well I CAN if I can't find anything else, it'll just get spendy.

I'm going to string up a full bed of Topspin Cyberflash tonight. I ordered 2 sets of 4g to give that a try. I'm a 4.0 with a fairly fast swing speed and ok technique. I've never felt entirely comfortable with a full bed of poly before but I guess I might have to give it a try with this stick.

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Nice to have you! Welcome! Unfortunately, I believe full poly is a must in this frame. I noticed you have a fairly large tension differential between your mains and crosses. I understand that this is due to the fact that you are playing gut but be careful. A friend of mine strung his 99s with a 10 pound tension differential and warped the frame. He tried full poly 60/50.

My gut/poly experiences with the 99S were just like wmilas'. I never got any more than 6 hours out of a stringjob.

I agree with cluelessmoose that full poly is a must in this frame, which is ok because it is still comfortable with full poly. I have tried a whole bunch of different polys and have settled on Iontec Salmon 1.25. It's durable, has good snapback, decent tension maintenance, and great feel. Plus it's only $70 a reel!

Nice to have you! Welcome! Unfortunately, I believe full poly is a must in this frame. I noticed you have a fairly large tension differential between your mains and crosses. I understand that this is due to the fact that you are playing gut but be careful. A friend of mine strung his 99s with a 10 pound tension differential and warped the frame. He tried full poly 60/50.

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Thanks for this note.

I was condiering trying a very large mains vs crosses differential, but upon warning from another poster, decided not to try it due to possible frame damage. It sounds like this is a real possibility.

I know this is a semi-old topic and discussed in many past threads, but you really must try hand lotion on the stringbed with this frame. It works fantastically and costs almost nothing. I am using the cheapest poly out there (Gosen Polylon 16....about $1.70 per racquet) and with generic hand lotion on the stringbed, half cooked Polylon strings play damn near new (strings return to neutral position, control comes back, and spin increases). Ive tried it several times and got the same fantastic results each time. The lotion seems to last about 1-2 sets before needing to be reapplied.

You're welcome, Buford. On a typical 16 x 19 pattern. 10lb would not be a big deal on the majority of frames. However, with less pressure on the sides of the racket due to less crosses, I found that the 99s' head will start to compress just a bit once you have a differential of ~5-6lb as I have also played with the idea. I have only tested with frames with a stiffness of ~65RA or higher, but I have found that compression of typical frames will not begin untill a differential of ~12-15lb. Past this, typical frames will compress, but will return to their natural state after tension is released. I have strung with a differential as high as 30lb (60lbx30lb) in my APD without the frame permanently warping in the hopes of finding more spin due to lower interstring friction (which I did find). I ended up playing 60lb x 30lb for about a year untill I started hitting with 5.0 players on ocasion. The spin was not a great enough difference to offset the extra power playing at this pace so I now play my APD at 57lbx47lb. I have also tried 45lb mains with 60lb crosses. The racket had a relatively high amout of spin for the first 10-15 minutes. After that, the strings stuck to each other horrendously and spin was at a minimum. Also, The frame was permanently warped just a little bit.

I really dont understand why I still see people using less than 55 lbs of tension and/or using less than 1.25mm guage string???

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Well for me, the lower tension on the poly was to facilitate string movement. I did not snap the poly but the gut. any higher tension on the gut it would have snapped sooner.

I strung up the cyberflash last night.. play with it tonight for 2 hours. As a side note, stringing cyberflash as one piece not out of a reel on this stick sucks. I should have been smart and cut 5 feet off it before I started.

If you want to use the stock frame. Use 1.30mm, at the least, full poly. Anything smaller than 1.30mm, the string just moves and trampolines off the racquet. But it really depends on how hard you hit the ball and your skill level.
I played with 4G 1.30mm at 65lbs on stock frame and it still felt too soft and the strings were dead in less than an hour.

How many of you guys are playing the stick stock just out of curiosity? I replaced the base grip with a babolat syntec, added an over grip, and added 8 grams of lead at 12 o'clock bringing the sw to ~155-160 and balance to 2pts hl.

This racquet needs more weight around the head, off center shots are not forgiving, especially towards the top. There's less string so there's less mass overall in the head compared to a normal racquet.

How many of you guys are playing the stick stock just out of curiosity? I replaced the base grip with a babolat syntec, added an over grip, and added 8 grams of lead at 12 o'clock bringing the sw to ~155-160 and balance to 2pts hl.

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I like it bog stock. I just added a Super Grap overgrip and some headtape. Initially, I almost added some weight (as I was swinging too early especially on BH side) but decided to just adjust to the lower weight.

I play with it stock. My favorite Bab overgrip and its good to go. I find it pretty stable headwise on off center shots. Its actually more stable than my old yonex stick. Its no players midsize for sure, but its pretty good.

Ok so I played with the topspin cyberflash last night strung at 50 for 2.5 hours. solid rallys and volleys then 2 sets of dubs. Was way more comfy than I thought, and way more powerful. Needs to be strung at 54 ish for me. If I had all day long to set up my shots I could spin it in no problem. On the run groundstrokes tended to go long. Volleys and reflex volleys were a tad long, but since I'm used to the bouncyness of gut, they weren't flying all that long. Feel was still pretty good, better than I thought.

There was not as much spin as a gut/poly hybrid Its a shame cause that was what drew me to the stick. Still lots of spin, more than my previous stick. I do have to say that I think with a little more tension the reduced spin will be a more controllable spin.

What I'm amazed about is that I just got over a bout of T.E. The cyberflash didn't jar my elbow at all. Pretty comfortable actually.

The lux 4g should be here today. I'll string it tonight and play with it Fri.

Ok so I played with the topspin cyberflash last night strung at 50 for 2.5 hours. solid rallys and volleys then 2 sets of dubs. Was way more comfy than I thought, and way more powerful. Needs to be strung at 54 ish for me. If I had all day long to set up my shots I could spin it in no problem. On the run groundstrokes tended to go long. Volleys and reflex volleys were a tad long, but since I'm used to the bouncyness of gut, they weren't flying all that long. Feel was still pretty good, better than I thought.

Well I was expecting a soft string as, if you went back and read, have had T.E. Poly strung at 50 in a yonex RDiS is murder. I did not expect the stick to be as soft as it feels considering it stiffness is as high as it is.

When its strung with gut it did need to be strung that much higher. Apparently, with poly, it does.

Well I was expecting a soft string as, if you went back and read, have had T.E. Poly strung at 50 in a yonex RDiS is murder. I did not expect the stick to be as soft as it feels considering it stiffness is as high as it is.

When its strung with gut it did need to be strung that much higher. Apparently, with poly, it does.

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The 99s really requires poly strung at a minimum of 56. The recommended tension range from Wilson is 55-65, so even 60 would just be mid. If you have TE issues, I would recommend trying the Donnay Pro One 97 16x19.
Similar stick, but lots more comfortable.

Played with 4g for an hour on Friday. Just baseline rallys with a hitting partner. Didn't like it. At all. Felt a bit mushy at first. After 30 minutes felt very mushy. Was hitting with someone that doesn't hit with a lot of power, so I was generating all my own. Was a effort to keep the swing speed up to keep the ball spinning.

I hear the tension maintenance on 4g is great... but its not worth it for me. I don't like the feel at all.

So far Topspin Cyberflash is the way to go. I'm going to try some Dunlop ICE in it next.

Test 1: (before any forum research) Sonic Pro 17g Orange @ 49lbs on a lockout/crank machine. My brother prefers a pretty loose set up and this was too soft for him after one match. It was too soft for me to even bounce the ball around the house. Snap back was totally gone.

Test 2: Sonic Pro 16g Black @ 55lbs on a constant pull machine. Still felt amazingly soft - was okay for one match but it was too springy for me after that. I hit a couple impressive topspin shots but it never really had any magic. My brother still wants to try it at this tension but snap back is already degraded considerably. I knew less crosses would make a differerence but holy smoke.

[pQUOTE=wmilas;7206897]Played with 4g for an hour on Friday. Just baseline rallys with a hitting partner. Didn't like it. At all. Felt a bit mushy at first. After 30 minutes felt very mushy. Was hitting with someone that doesn't hit with a lot of power, so I was generating all my own. Was a effort to keep the swing speed up to keep the ball spinning.

I hear the tension maintenance on 4g is great... but its not worth it for me. I don't like the feel at all.

So far Topspin Cyberflash is the way to go. I'm going to try some Dunlop ICE in it next.[/QUOTE]

Please let me know how hitting with the ice goes. I have a feeling it will be similar to polylon ice.

Hit with the stick that had the Cyberflash in it today for about 75 minutes. Most of the time were hard volleys being banged at me from the baseline with about 20 minutes of down the line drills from the baseline. If I had to guess I'm about halfway through snapping the mains. The crosses have grooved hard and wont move. The mains are moving like crazy. I really like the way it feels for volleys. Nice and soft for a poly. I have almost 4 hours on it.

If I break it at hour 8-10 I'll be pretty happy as that's when I'd must likely cut it out anyways.

Hit with the stick that had the Cyberflash in it today for about 75 minutes. Most of the time were hard volleys being banged at me from the baseline with about 20 minutes of down the line drills from the baseline. If I had to guess I'm about halfway through snapping the mains. The crosses have grooved hard and wont move. The mains are moving like crazy. I really like the way it feels for volleys. Nice and soft for a poly. I have almost 4 hours on it.

If I break it at hour 8-10 I'll be pretty happy as that's when I'd must likely cut it out anyways.

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The racket really does feel great at net, doesn't it? Before playing with it I thought the racket would lack control at the net due to such a crazy string pattern. What gauge of cyber flash did you play?

I tried PTP, at 56 thinking the softer string would have more dwelltime in the stringbed, giving a softer feeling.

I was wrong.

For me, it was lowpowered, i had to really swing at about 90% power for it to hit deep in the court.
The spin was mediocre.
The crosses started moving, and notching(because they have equal force, they both cut into eachother).
Because this frame "eats" strings, you really have to have a softer main then cross, or else it will play like "****".

I just thought of something, with my setup, the snapback becomes more of an slideback, cause the mains slide back to place.

If you use a cross that is softer then the main, it might cut the other way, and the mains will either "snap" back, or notch.

Rare - Interesting set up ^. What are your thoughts re PTP as a full job?

syke - What tension here please with the PTP?

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So far I have tried 4 different strings on the 99S (all strung at 54 lbs).
Technifibre Black Code - Good spin & feel but poor tension maintenance & it notches way too fast. A liitle too powerful for my liking. Broke in the 5 hours mark.

PolyTour Spin - Good spin, nice pop, great feel. Better than BC in terms of durability, but not by much.

PolyTour Pro - Moderate spin. PTS has better pop and feel. Power is just right. Although it may not the best in any department, it is consistent and predictable. Durability is pretty good after 2 hours (in comparision with the other 3 strings)

Gosen Polylon - Didn't like the feel of it. It simply didn't bring out the racquet's characteristics. They were cut out after 2 hours.